Remove a Root Certificate in Internet Explorer

SSL.com wishes to give you the knowledge you need to manage your security architecture. Below are instructions for removing an unwanted root certificate in Internet Explorer. (If you wish to disable rather than remove a certificate see our instructions for doing this in Microsoft Management Console.) Note that you may need to run Internet Explorer with Administrator privileges to perform this task.

WARNING! Manually messing about with root certificates is serious juju and can cause serious and unpleasant problems.  Remember to always back up your computer before proceeding with any of the steps below. We completely believe your computer should be yours to fix or break – however, SSL.com cannot guarantee the steps given below will not cause other serious problems on your computer, and is not liable for any issues that arise from following these instructions.

To Remove a Root Certificate in IE:

  1. Click the gear icon in the upper right corner.

    Gear icon

  2. Select “Internet options” from the dropdown menu.

    Internet options

  3. In the Internet Options panel, select the “Content” tab, then click the Certificates button.

    Content tab and Certificates button

  4. In the Certificates panel, click the “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” tab and select the certificate you wish to remove. To actually delete the highlighted certificate, click the Remove button.

    Note: In this example we are selecting GoDaddy’s root certificate as our target – this is ONLY for illustrative purposes. We do NOT suggest you remove GoDaddy’s root certificate!

    Certificates window

  5. Internet Explorer will now remind you that deleting a certificate can do Very Bad Things. To verify removal of the certificate, click Yes.

    Certificates dialog

Your target certificate is now removed from the certificate store. SSL.com reminds you – a safer internet is a better internet!

Thank you for choosing SSL.com! If you have any questions, please contact us by email at Support@SSL.com, call 1-877-SSL-SECURE, or just click the chat link at the bottom right of this page. You can also find answers to many common support questions in our knowledgebase.

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